leo carrillo

heading down the mountain through the canyon of my youth,

we had Gigi with us telling stories about an adventure 

she plans to take us all on one day to the landscape of her youth.

it involved a train ride, so ezra was her most captivated audience member.

the story telling (meant to keep the boys' attention focused) stopped when the tunnels started.  then it was time to hold our breath and for steve to honk the horn.  i was happy i could still hold my breath through three tunnels like a kid.

when we arrived to their site, there was this beautiful purple flower hidden in the mustard weed that grant saw - a good sign of the beauty to be seen in their surroundings for the next week.  

the boys immediately set off to explore while the camping parents set up house.

grant found this huge leaf from one of the giant sycamore trees.

i marveled at all the trees around us -

a gnarled coast live oak

and these super slim and elegant sycamore towers

 from which the boys all gathered soft big green leaves.

 then grant found this patch of sycamores

and i found a perfect photo opportunity.

then they ran to explore some more

and settled here for a while before lunch and heading over to the beach.  they cooked their sycamore leaves like marshmallows on sticks in the smoldering fire left by previous campers and chased the squirrels running rampant around the campgrounds.

luckily they brought an extra boogie board for ezra (shhh - it's really a snow board).

we walked a ways to the beach and all the boys carried their boards themselves.  

i just love the way ezra figured out on his own to put that board on his head.

 we walked through a human tunnel - under the highway to get to....

this!

once we were on the sand, this was our view to the left

to the right,

and straight ahead.

there were tide pools to explore,

take a closer look where...

grant, finder of things, found this hermit crab.

 ezra, luke, and keegan preferred to play in the sand.

 pelicans flew overhead

while steve and kristi threw each other a football.

later on steve went with the boys to see if he could find them a crab.

he looked under a few rocks but didn't see any.

at the end of our visit, the boys braved the cold water with their boards.  it was a good thing they waited until the end because when they were through they were shivering, teeth chattering, shoulders shaking cold.  it was time to head back to camp.  we are headed back for a few hours today of happy play time with family and friends.  tomorrow we will fly across america to the warmer and bluer atlantic ocean of miami beach where we'll be spending the rest of our summer and 2011.